1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of paintball. In particular, the present invention relates specifically to a high speed paintball loader using outfeed tube sensing and/or pulse type motor control.
2. Description of the Known Art
The game of paintball has enjoyed great success in recent years. In the game, each of two or more teams tries to capture the opposing team's flag. The players on the teams carry a compressed air-powered marker that shoots paintballs (i.e., gelatin-covered spherical capsules which contain a colored liquid) a considerable distance. When a player is hit with a paintball fired from a marker, the paintball ruptures and leaves a colored mark on the hit player; the hit player must leave the game. As the game of paintball has grown in sophistication, semi-automatic paintball markers (i.e., markers that sequentially fire individual paintballs as fast as the trigger can be repeatedly pulled) have become more prevalent. The high firing rate capability of semi-automatic paintball markers has necessitated the use of bulk paintball loaders in conjunction with such markers. In addition, these markers can demand paintball feed rates that exceed the abilities of a gravity feed system. Thus, powered loaders have been developed.
A conventional bulk paintball loader typically comprises a housing positioned above and slightly to one side of the paintball marker. The housing is adapted to internally store a relatively large number of paintballs and has a bottom outlet opening through which the stored paintballs can sequentially drop. Connected to the housing's bottom outlet opening, and extending downwardly therefrom, is an outfeed tube that is connectable to the paintball marker's hollow infeed tube.
During normal operation of the loader, paintballs dropped through the bottom outlet opening of the housing form a paintball stack within the outfeed tube and marker infeed tube. When the paintball at the bottom of the stack is dropped into the firing chamber of the paintball marker, it is replaced, at the top of the stack, from the supply of paintballs remaining in the loader housing, thereby replenishing the stack. In replenishing the stack of paintballs, however, jams sometimes occur within the loader housing, above its bottom outlet opening. Paintball jams of this nature prevent normal gravity-fed delivery of paintballs downwardly through the bottom outlet opening, with the result that the paintball stack can be totally depleted after several shots of the paintball marker.
One solution for clearing paintball jams involves forcibly shaking the paintball marker and attached loader to dislodge the paintballs that are causing the jam within the loader housing. This solution has proved undesirable as it interrupted the proper aiming of the paintball marker and correspondingly interrupted the paintball marker user's ability to shoot the paintballs continuously and rapidly.
Another solution is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,454, which is incorporated herein by reference. The '454 patent incorporates a jam clearing system into the paintball loader device. The jam clearing system includes an agitator disposed within the housing near the outlet, and an optical circuit for detecting the absence of paintballs at a specified location within the outfeed tube (i.e., a depleted stack). Upon detection of the absence of a paintball at the specified location within the outfeed tube, the optical circuit would close a switch to turn on a motor, which would cause the agitator to rotate. Agitator rotation usually would eliminate the paintball jam within the loader, allowing paintballs to resume gravity feed into the outfeed tube. This, in turn, would replenish the paintball stack and cause the optical circuit to open the switch and turn off the motor, thus arresting the agitator. While improving delivery of paintballs to the paintball marker, the agitator solution of the '454 patent is not optimal because the agitator simply shuffles paintballs within the loader housing, which are fed only by gravity to the outfeed tube.
Yet another solution for clearing paintball jams is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,232, which is also incorporated herein by reference. In the “active feed” loader of the '232 patent, a switch controlling a motor-driven impeller is turned on and off by an optical paintball detector in a manner similar to the agitator control in the '454 patent. The impeller of the '232 patent is situated in a surrounding well at the bottom of the loader housing and has curved arms that sequentially move paintballs one-by-one toward the outfeed tube. Similar active-feed paintball loaders are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,110 and U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2002/0014230 A1. In all of these active-feed loaders the impeller is made of a relatively stiff, unyielding material. If the impeller should turn when there is a paintball jam, or when the stack of paintballs in the outfeed tube is static (marker not firing), the stiff impeller can squeeze and undesirably break one or more paintballs in the loader housing. This latter situation can occur if the motor does not shut off due to a malfunction, or during normal operation if motor/impeller rotation is not arrested quickly enough. U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2002/0092513 A1 recognizes this impeller over-running problem, but the solution proposed is a complex and seemingly costly spring mechanism built into the impeller.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,502,567 (“the '567 patent”) issued to Christopher, et al. on Jan. 7, 2003 teaches a rapid feed paintball loader for use upon a conventional paintball marker. The rapid feed paintball loader includes a container for holding a plurality of paintballs. At a bottom portion of the container is a rotatable drive cone having a plurality of vertical fins. Each fin forms a gap with an adjacent fin large enough to accommodate a paintball. At the bottom of the container is an exit tube which exits from the bottom portion of the container and leads to an inlet tube of the paintball marker. A tube extension is mounted on an interior surface of the container adjacent to the sloped exit portion of the exit tube. The tube extension is mounted at a height which is above the top feed surface of the fins, and which is approximately equal to the radius of a paintball. A pivotable deflector is also mounted on an interior surface of the container adjacent the tube extension to prevent paintball jams from occurring within the interior of the container. The deflector is positioned above the top feed surface of the fins and below the height of the tube extension. The paintball loader also includes a microprocessor to variably control the rotational speed of the drive cone.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,725,852 issued to Yokota et al. on Apr. 27, 2004 teaches an ammunition magazine for dispensing uniformly-sized spherical projectiles such as paintballs into a marker adapted to shoot said projectiles that has a generally oblong, closed container having a channel defined in its bottom from a distal axial end to an outlet port located in a lowermost, median portion of the container. The proximal portion of the container floor defines a slanted platform which extends above and beyond the outer port so that projectiles are urged by the platform toward the distal end of the channel from where they roll under the platform and into the outlet port. A helicoidal stirring arm projects from a distal area of the platform obliquely over the exposed part of the channel. The steering aim is driven by an electrical motor controlled by a switch conveniently mounted on the side of the magazine. The arm spins in a ball-uplifting direction to break any jamming of the balls above the channel. The outlet port extends into a tubular section having radial fins which allow the escape of blown-back gases between the tubular section and the internal wall of the marker projectile inlet.
Another solution is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 6,889,680 (“the '680 patent”) issued to Christopher, et al. on May 10, 2005 which is directed to a ball feed mechanism for use in a paintball loader. The ball feed mechanism includes a feeder which conveys or impels balls toward a feed neck, and a drive member which is concentric with the impeller. The feeder is coupled to the drive member through a spring. The spring is configured to store potential energy which is used to rotate the feeder and, thus, drive the balls toward the feed neck. An electric motor is used to rotate the drive member to wind the spring. The feed mechanism includes sensors which detect the motion of the feeder and the drive member. A controller determines the spring tension based on the relative motion of the feeder and drive member, and actuates a motor when necessary.
Another solution is presented by U.S. Pat. No. 7,021,302 (“the '302 patent”) issued to Neumaster, et al. on Apr. 4, 2006. The '302 patent teaches an impeller for an active-feed paintball loader with resilient arms that engage paintballs in the lower portion (well) of the loader and advance them to and through the outfeed tube. The resilient arms are sufficiently stiff to move unobstructed paintballs located between the arms, and sufficiently flexible to yield when forced against stationary paintballs so as not to rupture the paintball shells, the arms substantially returning to their original shape when the obstruction is removed. Accordingly, when the motor is shut off, the arms will simply flex backward as they encounter stationary paintballs. Should a paintball jam occur in the vicinity of the impeller, the arm(s) can flex around the jammed ball without breaking it, and help to dislodge it so as to clear the jam.
A need therefore exists for a simple and economical active-feed paintball loader that reliably feeds paintballs to the outfeed tube to ensure a rapid and steady supply of paintballs to the marker, while preventing (or at least greatly reducing the likelihood of) paintball breakage in the loader.